National Press Review, November 24

'The reform starts off on the wrong foot' - the România Liberă headlines, and also brings arguments to this statement, quote: 'Liviu Popa`s appointment as Head of the General Police Inspectorate instead of Petre Tobă may be considered surprising.'

'Popa used to lead an organization, the National Anticorruption Directorate, which has failed to discover the links between the police and criminal groups.'

The Gândul writes that 'the decapitations at the top of the Ministry of Interior have been decided after a pilgrimage that the Minister of Interior began in the morning at the Cotroceni Palace, together with Prime Minister Emil Boc.'

'Minister Igaş got the green light from Cotroceni and replaced Fătuloiu and Tobă.'

The Gândul also publishes a map of policemen, prosecutors and judges who protect criminals.

'The devouted Police Department of Popa and Dascălu' - the Jurnalul Naţional headlines, which thus depicts yesterday`s changes in the Ministry of Interior, quote: 'The Police Department fasts. Şoric resigned. Superintendent Tobă has been dismissed along with the talkative Secretary of State Fătuloiu. The new Head of the Police Department and State Secretary Ioan Dascălu, were installed yesterday by Minister Igaş. As young, well educated people, the two take charge in a moment of crisis for the insitution.'

The Evenimentul Zilei claims it owns backstage information on the dismissals and, accordingly, declares superintendent Dan Fătuloiu as 'his own colateral victim, sentenced because he relied on a battle of appereances and was thus defeated by his own weapons.'

The newspaper`s conclusion is that, qoute:'the thirst for power decapitated the head of the Romanian Police Department.'

'A Romanian company needs a month to fill in the tax returns, to submit them to various insitutions and pay the taxes.' - we read in the Evenimentul Zilei.

'The business environment becomes increasingly hostile with every year. Romania fell from number 147 to 151 in a ranking that includes 183 countries, according to a report by an international audit and consulting company.

'A company in Romania should pay no less than 113 taxes, while a Bulgarian one has to pay for 17 taxes and a company in Germany pays for 16 taxes'.

The Gândul also shows how 'Romanian businessmen can prosper in hard times of economical crisis, but in Bulgaria.'

Many Romanian entrepreneurs chose Bulgaria for their business, after having conducted a through analysis of fiscal and financial conditions and concluded that our neighbor is much more appealing: fewer and much smaller taxes, a stable euro-leva exchange rate, cheaper accountants and office rents.

The România Liberă suggests an interesting interview with Tom Gallagher, professor at the Bradfort Univeristy in the UK, specialized in the Balkans situation and a keen analyst of the Romanian issues.

'The European Union should be aware of the fact that Romania is uncapable of development' - the British professor states; he is launching today in Bucharest the book 'Romania`s Lost Decade'.

'A country with problems arising from a highly destructive form of communism needed the close supervision from Brussels.'

'Instead, a membership plan has been enforced, which had too little connection with the country`s problems.'

'The European Union has realized too late that the Romanian justice system had remained the prisoner of the communist values and, of course, of some groups within the system, which sought to maintain their doubtful principles.'

'The European Union took too long to realize that the low political standards can sabotage a viable model of modernization.'

'This if how the naive form of privatization promoted by the European Union has allowed the economic strenght to be monopolized by small groups of people'- are just some of the assessments made by the British professor Tom Gallagher.

Translated by Manuela Stancu
MA Student, MTTLC, Bucharest University